DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 7 (UPI) -- British expatriate Mark Arnold was sentenced Monday in Dubai to 15 years in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Kerry Winter, officials said.
Arnold is to be deported to Britain after serving his sentence for premeditated murder, said Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad of the Dubai First Court of Instance.
Prosecutors said Arnold bludgeoned Winter with a baseball bat and then dumped her body at sea or buried it in the desert, 7days reported Monday.
Winter disappeared from a villa in al Barsha, Dubai, Aug. 20, 2008, and her body was never found.
Neighbors said they saw Arnold beat Winter before dragging her to a car and driving away, Gulf News reported.
Arnold maintained Winter, 36, of South Africa, is still alive and faked her death to get back at him after he ended their romance.
"I thought he'd own up, but he didn't," Winter's mother, Carol, said in a telephone interview with The National from her home in Durban, South Africa.
